Taiwan's leader seeking greater ties with China

June 19, 2008|By KEITH BRADSHER AND EDWARD WONG The New York Times

TAIPEI, Taiwan — President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan called on Wednesday for a rapid expansion of economic relations between Taiwan and mainland China over the next year or two that would go far beyond the weekend charter flights and increased tourism announced last Friday.

Ma said he wanted broad access to the mainland market for Taiwanese financial services businesses, an end to double taxation by government agencies in Taipei and Beijing and the removal of investment restrictions.

He also called for direct sea and air cargo links across the Taiwan Strait, regularly scheduled passenger flights, the drafting of common technical standards and the creation of a system to resolve commercial disagreements.

"I think if we could continue the current talks with them to achieve economic normalization, I'm sure the feeling of a peaceful environment will continue to grow, and this is exactly what we have in mind," Ma said in his first interview with an American news organization since taking office on May 20. He spoke for an hour at the presidential palace on Wednesday.

Ma led his Nationalist Party to a decisive victory in the March elections, prevailing by nearly 16 percentage points over Frank Hsieh of the Democratic Progressive Party, which has been much warier of ties with China.

Ma ran on a platform of strengthening the Taiwanese economy through a warming of relations with the mainland while insisting that he would not talk with Beijing about reunification. Negotiators from Taiwan met with their counterparts in Beijing last week and announced a deal to start weekend charter flights and allow more mainland tourists into Taiwan.

Two other broad sets of issues will wait until his economic agenda is resolved, Ma said. These are Taiwan's limited "international space," in the sense that most of the outside world now recognizes Beijing instead of Taipei as the legitimate government of China, and security issues across the Taiwan Strait.

"I think that's the order - first is economic normalization, and then international space and then the peace accord," he said.

Economic agreements should also be easier to reach because officials in Beijing seem to have reached a consensus that they want such pacts, Ma said. No such consensus exists on the mainland regarding Taiwan's international space or security issues, he added.

China has worked to block Taiwan from joining certain international bodies like the World Health Organization, something Ma said he would like to reverse. In addition, only 23 countries still have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, while 171 recognize Beijing. The two sides have vied for friends with lavish offers of financial aid.

Ma also repeated his demand that China remove the more than 1,000 short- and medium-range missiles that it has aimed at Taiwan. Their removal is needed before any peace talks can begin to end the legal state of hostility that has persisted since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, he said.

China has threatened the use of force to achieve political reunification.